Scary Things
by James Glaser
jimmytwoshoes@hotmail.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

I just got home from the Future of Freedom Foundation's conference on "Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy & Civil Liberties." I was looking over my notes, and one thing that really jumped out at me was the pessimism with which almost every speaker held for the future of our country.

There were 24 speakers over the three and a half days of the conference. Every one of them was interesting, but two of them scared me. Not that they scared me for my everyday life, but scared me for the future of our country, and for what kind of country my children and grandchildren will live in.

The words of Andrew P, Napolitano and Bob Barr, made me worry about our future here in America. These two are not a couple of conspiracy theorists, but what they said could make you think that.

Andrew P.Napolitano is the senior judicial analyst for FOX News. He is also the youngest life tenured Superior Court Judge in the history of the State of New Jersey, and has tried Criminal, Civil, Equity, and Family Superior Court Cases.

Bob Barr, represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2002 and is considered an expert on privacy matters.

Here is what is so scary about what these two men had to say. Right now, if you have a cell phone or a blackberry on you or near you, even if it is not on, but has a battery in it, the government can listen to your conversation. Both of these men said this is now legal.

Both men talked about how the government can now get information about you from your lawyer, your banker, your doctor, your accountant, almost anybody, and those people would be committing a crime, a felony, if they told you that the government requested that information.

Now here is something that really stuck with me after listening to these two. Except for a small minority, the 535 members of our Congress in Washington are not good people.

The people in Congress are not there to uphold our Constitution, nor are they looking out for the citizens of America. What they are doing is looking out for themselves, the people who back them, and who ever gives them the most money.

These two men, along with the other 22 speakers were not talking about getting America back on track in the next election cycle, maybe not in the next decade. What they are talking about is trying to educate America about the principals that our country was founded on. About explaining to America that the rights given to us by God are the rights our founding fathers tried to state in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. That our founding fathers set up a government where the people granted certain powers to the government.

I guess that the most important thread that ran through the whole conference was that our rights as Americans are every man and woman's God given rights. That the government in Washington does not give us any rights, that we had those rights before that government was formed.

The problem is that if we have those rights, the government can not control us like they want to, and all governments want more and more control over the people. People in Washington find it very inconvenient that we have a Bill of Rights, and they are doing everything they can to negate those rights.

Some Americans are willing to give those rights away, with the promise of security from those in office. The problem with that is, after these in office now, die or retire, the new people taking over will not have to honor any promise made by those who served before them. Then our children and grandchildren will be living in a country with no inherent rights for its citizens.

The rights we have today that are guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the rights that set America apart from most of the rest of the world. They are the rights that people want so badly, that they will risk their very lives to come here and get them. They are the rights that the rest of the world has admired for over two hundred years, and they are the rights that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending.

So, this conference was an education for me too. I had always thought those in Washington might be inept, but that they were doing their best for the country. Now I hear from people that I respect, that those in our government today know exactly what they are doing, and that they are trying as hard as they can to take control of our country away from you and me, and concentrate that control in Washington.

I now know, that I don't know enough about what my rights really are, and that I will have to educate myself on what rights I have, so that I will at least know when those rights are under attack.

Reprinted from James Glaser's posting of June 7, 2007 on his website www.james-glaser.com.

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